The Secret.....the new Scientology

Having been in and out of Books a Million a lot lately, I've seen this book called "The Secret" sitting on the shelves and wondered what the hub bub is about, and why it's #2 on the bestseller lists.  (Thanks to  Wikipedia I found out that "The Oprah" did some shows on it so that would explain the "hey let's go out and get this because Oprah told us to").  So according to the author of this book, our reality is created by our emotions.   Sorry?  So basically we all live in our own reality then.  Also, all we have to do to be successful is Ask, Answer, Receive.   Huh????  Yes apparently the force of our Will (guess you have to have a high midichlorian count or something....oops another Geek moment there) if sent out into the Universe will bring us what we need.  Hold on....let's try this.......Dear Universe, please give me a Million Dollars?  That's the ask.  The Answer:  I need it because we have bills to pay and I'd like not to work anymore but to open my own Deli.   I'll keep you posted on if I receive.  Something tells me I ain't getting shit.  What is wrong with us?  Why do we Americans always look for the easy path?  Want to know how to make money and be successful?  Write a freaking book like "The Secret" and get Oprah and Larry King and everyone else in the World to talk about it which will get the mass amounts of Sheeple that live in this country to go spend money!!!!!  I believe in the spirit of Karma.  If you are basically a good person, then most of the stuff that will happen to you will be good things.  If you are a vile and sneaky person, then vile and sneaky crap will happen to you.  Simple.  It's the basic law of the Universe.  It's the law of balance.  It's like they old saying....Life is a shit sandwich.  The more Bread you have the less shit you have to eat.  We all have our bad days, but if you think about it, it's bad because of something that happened to "someone" else....not you.  I may be delayed by massive traffic backups because of an accident, but at least I'm not the poor sod being dragged out of a wrecked vehicle and being Life Flighted to Vanderbilt.  I'll take the creeping along at 10 mph and like it instead of being "that guy".  There is no magic button, pill, saying, religion that will make the world a happy place.  If there was, don't you think someone would have used it by now?  I read about these people and I laugh.  L Ron Hubbard, the author of the science fiction story "Dianetics"...oh sorry it's a "self help" book...yeah right....was heard telling his fellow writers one time "We will never get rich writing for a penny a word.  Start a religion, now that's where the money's at."  This whole "Secret" mumbo Jumbo sounds real similar.  But just in case..........I'll let you know if I get that million.

i-yi yi yi yi.....

The iPhone comes out today, and from what I read, you should wait for version 2. I have always had mixed feelings about Apple products. I've used a Macintosh (the first ones) at SFSU when I had a business writing class. I liked their word processor program as it was easier to you use than Wordperfect at the time (yes I'm old enough to have used Lotus and one of the original Macs.....shut up). The main problem I have with Apple is the main issue I have with some of Sony's stuff: it's proprietary. Sony is trying to push this new next Gen DVD format called blu ray (it's read with a blue laser instead of a red one....this means they can cram more info on it or something) whereas the rest of the manufacturers in the world are pushing HD DVD.....meaning you don't have to purchase it from Sony or give money to Sony to buy your DVD's. The iPod is like that. From what I know, you can only buy songs from it from iTunes or Apple. If you buy an Apple computer, you can only buy it from Apple. The hardware for it comes from Apple. Thus the higher prices than any PC product you can buy from any manufacturer. Apple does licsense out peripherals (speakers for the MacBooks, docking stations for the iPod etc) but the main hardware; keyboards, mice.....come from Apple. Sony's Blu Ray scheme is like they tried to do way back when with the Betamax format for video tape. Sony lost that one because folks like choice. The iPhone has some cool features, but the exclusive cell provider and wireless provider is AT&T (formerly Cingular). It is using a slow browser for some reason and it's a 2 year contract. The iPhone is like a pocket secretary in the Shadowrun universe....oh sorry I should have warned you about that slight Geek moment there......basically a pocket computer. You can browse the web, watch TV, watch movies, answere emails, listen to music....oh yeah and make phone calls. If you have a ginormous iPod library, you might not want to throw that puppy away yet; the iPhone only holds 800 songs or so.....not alot. It's also, like any product from Steve Jobs and Apple, expensive. Apple rarely lowers their prices and thus makes it cost ineffective for business's to buy whole departments worth of Apple computers. Thus Apple's 2% market share. Of course it's harder to hack an Apple product, and they are practically virus free (it has to do with the operating system and where the root directories are.......if you really want to know, email the Perfect Line I'm sure he will happily describe it in detail), and yes they come out of the box ready to use. PC's come with lot's of promotional software installed, and basic Microsoft Products like Word, Excel are given to you as a "trial" basis and not part of it. I'm not really sure why, but oh well. There are IT guys where I work......nuff said. Apple computers are great for multi-media stuff (the Discourser has detailed just how easy it is to make movies on it) alot better than PC stuff. The price keeps alot of people away, and the fact that you use a PC at work, you neighbor has a PC, you have one, your brother has one, etc etc is what keeps folks away I believe. I remember working with someone once who was an audiophile. He loved the old school stereo systems. He was looking for a laser tracking turntable.....this was when CD players had finally come down in price to the point where a kid with 20 dollars could buy one. He liked this keyboard called the Dvorak keyboard. The letters were arranged differently than on the standard Qwerty keyboards we all learned on and use to this day. Apparently the arrangement on the Dvorak is a more logical arrangement, but it was the late runner and everyone had already learned on the qwerty so too bad so sad. Apple's were the first true powerful home computer. Sure there was the Commodore 64 (ah....I miss my C64) but you really needed to know how to program in basic to use it whereas the Apple's were for the average Joe to use. IBM got involved thanks to this Geek named Bill.....you know Satan Himself, Bill Gates.....actually he's not really Satan, we just let him be. Hell the man's so rich he's practically giving money away, and to really good causes too. Amen Brother. The PC bust out when the started giving an open licsence to anyone that wanted to make a Clone of their computer. The reason we have Compaq, HP, Gateway and Dell to this day.

The iPhone, nifty cool gadget or $600 paperweight? Time will tell.

Ciao for Now.

Been a few

So just want to point you to a few of the Blogs in the links section of this one. Bill's Blog is my airsoft buddy Bill's blog. He hasn't written much, but that's because he travels alot for his job. Justin's Blog is by my other airsoft buddy Justin who is a sports trainer for one of the local High School's. He likes sports and that's a big part of the discussion on his blog. Skulley's blog is by Jason, another airsoft buddy, and it's one he shares with his Wife Jody. The Discourser...what can I say a man of infinite jest, and a man with a wondeful command of the English language. If you were ever thinking about being a Principal at a Middle School in a middle to lower middle class City....read The Discoursers Blog first. It may very well save your life. His commentaries on being the one stuck having to care for the FCA (read his blog you will know what that means) are gut busters for sure. The situation is sad, and he lets you know that but does it with a sense of humor. The Supergoober is the first of my friends the GoG to "out" himself to the electronic world as a gamer. This has been discussed enough in separate posts so need to go in to it here. He has also been blogging from Spain where he and his Wife were vacationing. Nice huh? I'm jealous, but given that they both do the same profession and what that profession entails they need a break. I will let the Supergoober tell you what his profession is. It's bad if he shares sometimes. Ntt's Brain is the blog of my friend Stang who works at EA designing all those wonderful time sucking devices we call video games. If you want to know what life is like at a big Game company, or just want to see his "sketch of the day" (he's a great artist) then pop by and take a tour in Ntt's Brain. Gary Amaro's Art is the blog of my friend from Ren Faire Gary Amaro. Comic book aritist extraordanaire. I've posed for a couple of characters for him in two published comics by DC and one comic that has yet to be published. A shame really, as the character I was posing for in that one was one of the main characters and would have been in several issues. Check out his artwork and his sketches from the San Francisco Bay Area "Sketchcrawl". Some pretty cool stuff. My Wife Cathy's other blog....she switched from blogger to wordpress is my Wonderful Wife Cathy's blog about life and scrapbooking.....which is kind of like "life" to her...... The Bastard Machine is Tim Goodman's blog. He is the TV critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and has wonderful opinions on TV (what he calls the Bastard Machine) there are also downloadable podcasts on his blog as well.

Expensive Pants now worth Nothing....

Well there may be hope for the world after all. I'm not sure if you've heard of this present ridiculousness going on in Washington DC (besides the present Administration), but it seems an egotistical Attorney is suing an Dry Cleaners for 54 Million dollars over the loss of a pair of pants. Apparently he took this pair of pants in to be altered, and when he went to pick them up they allegedley weren't the pair of pants he dropped off in the first place. The owner, after much go around with this jerk of an attorney (oh sorry, that's an oxy-moron should have just said attorney...the jerk is implied) offered to buy him a new pair of pants. The guy wasn't satisfied and said that the cleaner boasted of "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and said he wasn't satisfied with that and the cleaner was going to pay. Well of course it made the news, and it had the opposite effect I'm sure the attorney was hoping for; it made the cleaners more popular. Celebrities came out in support of the owner of the cleaners and the attorney cast a further dark light on the reputation of attorneys everywhere. Yesterday was the court date, and the judge told the attorney he should be ashamed of himself that frivolous lawsuits like his are ruining the system. Wow!!!! Where was this judge when the idiot lady spilled coffee in her lap???? He also is making the attorney pay the court and legal fees of the cleaners. There is some justice in the world after all.

Movie Review

Cathy and I did a rare thing on Saturday evening; we went to a movie. We saw the latest installment in the Pirate's of the Carribbean movies and it was great!!! I've always like these movies for their sense of fun. It's like a rollercoaster ride (ironic isn't it that the actual ride it is based on isn't a rollercoaster but the movies based on the ride are????), scary and fun. Gets the adrenaline flowing. Saw a preview for "Live Free or Die Hard"....God that looks like a fun movie too. Nothing but action....which is how it should be.

Kitten anyone?

Cathy and I have a usual weekend morning ritual, when we don't have to get up and be anywhere that is. We usually wake up anywhere between 7-8 am, brew up some coffee, and go sit outside on the patio and enjoy the morning. Both of us will read, or chat a bit, but usually we just sit and enjoy each others company. Saturday morning we were sitting there and lo but what comes bouncing towards us from under our shed but the most adorable kitten you've ever seen. He is black, with white spots on his belly and a white spot on his face that makes it look like he has a mustache. He also has white feet, thus the reason we named him Socks. He also has stark white whiskers that stand out big time from his black fur. He's healthy, friendly, playful and doesn't look like a stray. Help!!! Anyone want a Kitten???? Don't think our household can handle three cats. Two is plenty.

How not to run a business....another one

As I've told you before, I live near a new retail development called Providence Marketplace. It's really booming and pouring lots of tax money into the City. For years this City has had very little major retail. The big ones were a huge Kroger Grocery Store and a Cracker Barrell, and that was it. The rest of the City was populated by small coffee houses, Lawyers, a Funeral Home and several Realtors and Banks and Mortgage Brokers. Now we have a Movie Theater, book stores, Department Stores, Best Buy, Red Robin, Logans, etc etc..... The problem I am seeing is that some of these stores are Chains and some are Franchises. Chain restaurants are consistently good because they are run by a Corporation and the Corporation tells the Management how to run the restaurant which translates to the same experience (usually) at each of the Corps restaurants. Francises are business models, supplies and name that are licensed to an individual or individuals to run on their own. If I wanted to open a Subway Sandwich shop, the company would tell me where there was space available, I'd invest some money, get all I needed to set up the shop, then order supplies from the Franchise supplier, etc. They'd give me a manual on recommended ways to run a Subway, but pretty much I'm on my own. That's why at some Subways and Quiznos you get a sandwich that looks like the one on TV and other times you get a sandwich where you are wondering where the meat is????? In Providence a new pizza place has opened. The buzz was that they would be selling New York style pizza by the slice. Sounded good to me. The last place that was like that was an independent little shop in Downtown San Carlos, CA called Spederia. Awesome pies and you can always get 2 slices and a drink for 5 bucks. Needless to say the guy was always busy. This place in Providence is called NYPD or New York Pizza Deli. The first time we went there about 3 months ago was a disaster. Yes they sell it by the slice, but it's also a sit down restaurant as well. Okay, good. I like those. North Beach Pizza in San Mateo is like that. You are seated, given menus, silverware and someone comes and takes your order and delivers said pizza and drinks to you. So we walk into NYPD and it's chaos. Okay, at that point they had only been open a few weeks and like I've mentioned before the folks of Mount Juliet aren't used to running a business like this. We are waiting and waiting to be seated when a young man on his way off of work (he had on a shirt with the restaurant's logo on it) says "You shouldn't have to stand here and wait, just go sit yourself and they will take your order." Should have known better, but we sat ourselves. As it was, Cathy had to go grab a waiter and she came over to attend to us. She explained that it wasn't her station (from what I could see this particular woman was doing all the work and the 5 other waiters were sitting and spinning) and that Michelle would be attending to us. Time went by, Michelle stopped by the other tables in the section, but didn't give us a second glance. Michelle's tip, which always starts at 15% went down to 10% at that point. Cathy again went and told someone that our waiter was ignoring us, the same woman that sat us. I will call her Biker chick as she reminded me of one. So BC comes over, apologizing profusely for Michelle's icompetence by saying that they are busy (I felt like saying, "no you are busy, they are slacking") and proceeded to take our order. Michelle brought us our drinks.....that's all Michelle did. The tip scale slid farther down.....5% now....it would rise if Michelle brought us our food. Michelle didn't bring us our food, someone completely different did. The pizza was good, but the service (except for BC who busted her ass) sucked. Yet a different person brought us our check. Now mind you normally when you are brought a slip of paper only and no tray or plastic wallet you go up to the counter and pay your bill. IHOP, Cracker Barrel, Denny's all bring you a slip of paper and you go up and pay. Red Robin, Logans, Olive Garden bring you a tray or plastic folder thing and they take your money/plastic and run it for you. I bring my check up to the counter and the woman behind it (this is the owner from what I gathered) asked if she could help me. I explained that I was there to pay my check and she said that my waiter was supposed to take care of that for me. I explained in honest and plain language that my waiter Michelle sucked big time. Michelle was called over and made to take my debit card and bill and go ring it up. The owner apologized profusely. Michelle didn't come back with my card or bill, BC did. At this point, Michelle was getting zero tip, which is what she got. This was three months ago. Cathy and I had waited because we figured give them some time to work their shit out. They still haven't and we aren't going back. We go in last night. The girl behind the podium asks how many and takes us to a table. She then says for us to wait as she has to clean it off. So far so good. She is gone a while and when she returns it's with a napkin (not a wet cloth like is usually used to clean off tables) and tries to make the table clean; it ain't happening. She then finds us another booth commenting how she wished the servers would clean their tables more often. Seeing as how they don't do much of anything else in NYPD, I can see her frustration. She brings menus and silverware then proceeds to tell us the following: "When you are ready to order, please go to the counter and place your order and one of us will bring it to you when it's ready." I thought to myself, WTF????? I could see the same question cross my Wife's face as well. We sat for a moment figuring that the person that sat us got confused thinking we were ordering for carry out. Another server sat another couple near us and said the same exact thing. Three months ago my order was taken and I was given service at my table. Now you have to wait to be seated, then get up and stand in line at the counter and place your order, go sit back down in your seat and wait for someone to bring you your food when it's done. Huh???? Mountain Mike's Pizza, Village Host, Round Table, etc all do this. They have now servers, just folks that work behind the counter taking orders and making pies. They have no printed menus except for paper ones that you can take home and order delivery from. The menu is a huge board on the wall behind the counter person and after your order is taken, you are given a number and when your food is done, you either go get it yourself or sometimes they are nice and bring it out to you. Never once are you given the impression that you will be helped at your table. At NYPD you are given that impression, Hell I was served (poorly but I was served) at my table 3 months ago, but this time around apparently the owners think that their staff can't handle anything more complicated than delivering food. Needless to say Cathy and I left; pissed as can be. It's a shame really, the development is nice and the food at NYPD is actually good, but the service is shameful. What the Hell do these people think they are achieving by this I'm not sure. They aren't saving any money by having you go stand at the counter and order your food because they still have 5-6 servers working plus kitchen staff. With this business model they are paying servers to sit on their asses basically. How can they get the order right when no one is assigned a station????? If they are trying to save money, then why pay to have all the menus printed and have servers on duty? I'd fire the servers, get rid of the menus, and put up a menu board and have a sign at the front that says "Please Seat yourself then order at the counter". No illusions as to what kind of restaurant you are in. We also noticed that where they used to be crowded, now there is hardly anyone in there. My prediction: if they don't get their heads out of their asses and figure out what kind of restaurant they are trying to run the will be the first causualty of the brand new mall. Why do people get into a business when they have no clue what to do? The service Cathy and I received was deplorable and inexcusable. I'm sure these "food runners" would have been expecting a tip on top of what the bill was too. If I have to do most of the work at a restaurant, then you aren't getting a tip from me. There is a buffet Mike and I used to go to back home called China Harbor. Good food, but everything was self serve, down to the drinks. There was a drink station with plastic tumblers stacked near it. So all the waiter did was clear my dirty plate and bring me the bill at the end. Sorry, no tip. Bus boys clear the dirty dishes usually and they never get tips. Daily's Buffet in Mount Juliet your are seated, silverware brought to you, drink orders taken and drinks brought to your table and promptly refilled when empty. They get a tip. The waiter actually did their job. At this point it's safe to say that if I eat another pizza from NYPD it will be delivered to my house. I won't ever go in to their restaurant again.

Movie Review Part Deux

Last night we watched the last of the three movies we rented, Children of Men. Wow, interesting premise. It's the year 2027 and the world has gone to Hell. The reason: the last baby born was in 2009 and there hasn't been a pregnant woman since. 18 years of infertility has caused the world to go mad. England, it seems, is the only country with some sort of control. Refugees are flocking to England and are being put in camps...cries of "those damn illegals" can be heard everywhere. Meanwhile a group of rebels has blamed the Government for the infertility and are planning on using a pregnant African girl's baby as a symbol. The protaganist is trying to get her to a buoy in the English Channel so she can be picked up by a boat and taken to a private research facility in the Azores called "the Human Project"......a thinktank of scientists that is considered a myth by most that is trying to find a cure for what's causing the infertility of the world. Interesting themes that can be linked back to what's going on in the world today.

Movie Review

For a well done, fantastical romp that requires you to actually pay attention, rent Pan's Labrynth. I will warn you, you better not mind subtitles. Of course if you know the smallest bit of Spanish you really don't need them. It's a movie set in Spain during WWII. Spain is going through a Civil War and a Tailor's widow and her pre-teen daughter are off to their new home. The mother, tired of being a widow, married the Military Captain that her deceased husband used to make uniform's for. She is now pregnant with the Captain's son, and that's pretty much all he cares about. The whole blood line thing....thus the reason for the Civil war.....aren't Caste systems a bitch??? The Captain is cruel and tyrannical and very narcissitic. The daughter, Ofelia, refuses to call him Father and pretty much doesn't understand why her mother married this monster. She sees a strange insect (kind of resembling a Walking Stick) that leads her to this old stone Labrynth on the grounds of this Mill that the Captain lives in. The insect turns into a Fairy and leads the girl to an underground cave where she meets a Faun; a very sinister looking Faun. He tells her she is a Princess from the "other side" or Faerie if you read any Gaiman and that to prove she is worthy to inherit her kingdom she must do three tasks by the next Full Moon. She crawls through the mud in the innards of an old tree to slay the toad that is making the tree die. She does this after getting a new dress from her mother to attend a dinner party that she doesn't really want to go to. She slays the toad, but it takes her most of the day and when she comes back, the dress is ruined and she can't attend the party. It's things like this that make you think if the Fairy world is real in the movie, or is this just the girls way of coping. It's definitely worth a watch.

Welcome to the United Police State of America

Cue cracking of knuckles as I stretch out my fingers for another Rant!!

Enough is enough! The airlines are getting worse and worse every single day and we are letting them. How many more of our Civil Liberties are going to be stripped away in the name of "Security"? How many more items are we not going to be allowed to take on an airplane because someone at the Department of Homeland Gestapo decides that it could potentially be used as a weapon? Take this latest bit......a woman flying along with a toddler was taken into custody because she would not dispose of her child's sippy cup. What???? Yes you heard me right, a sippy cup. You know, brightly colored, has handles and a lid with a mouthpiece so kids can drink juice/water without spilling everywhere. She was told by the TSA (SS) that she had to dispose of her liquid vessel because the liquid in it wasn't of regulation volume. I blame the Brits for this one. They got everyone's panties in a bunch because of a supposed plot to sneak liquids on a plane that the terrorists could combine into an explosive. Search the web, there are millions of articles saying how that is totally impossible without anyone noticing. But, because of Osama Bin Laden we now have to have our rights taken away and can only carry-on a piddly amount of liquid. What's next? You have to piss before you get on the plane??? "I'm sorry sir, you are carrying precisely 1 gallon of liquid in your bladder and must dispose of it before getting on the plane..." Now picture this if you will: The woman is trying to wrangle a carry-on, a child (probably 3-5 years of age so kind of squirmy) and herself all on to a plane. Security stops her giving her grief about her illegal liquid. She offers to drink the liquid so she can carry the empty cup on board because she needs the cup so her child can drink their juice. As she is trying to drink the liquid from the cup the TSA Stormtrooper grabs her arm and she spills it.....at this point they accuse her of trying to "ditch" her illicit liquid and proceed to treat her like a criminal. Now mind you, her child actually got away from her at one point during this. She is taken off to the side so the TSA Goons can flex their 10 dollar an hour muscle and she and her child miss their flight. Was this necessary???? These people have no sense of humor, nor do they know when enough is enough. Give these morons a badge and a uniform and they think they are God. Then they want us to have passports when entering Canada or Mexico now. Okay, sounds good, something they should have done a long time ago. So this couple about to be married makes arrangements a year in advance to get passports because they are going to Honeymoon in Cabo. They go to get on a plane, now mind you a year later, and are held up because they didn't get their passports yet. After a freaking year?!?!?!?!? They had their receipt and tried to talk to the security folks but it was to no avail.....they missed their flight and missed part of their Honeymoon. Apparently the Department of Homeland Gestapo puts these new rules into effect, but doesn't have the personnel to handle the obvious increase in demand for passports. As I write this it is still taking forever and a day to get one. But of course it becomes "our" fault that they can't process these requests fast enough. The airlines have also been notorious lately for stranding passengers on planes for hours on end when something goes wrong with the plane. Do they offer them refreshments, etc? Sometimes, although not in the case of the Cathay Pacific plane that left it's passengers stranded for 7+ hours on the SFO runway. Jet Blue is the only airline that had done this lately that has apologize profusely for their screw up. Took out a full page ad in the WSJ to publish the apology letter written by the CEO to the public. It was a great letter, and the first time I've ever seen a CEO say "we screwed up". Amazing. When these people are interviewed, they always give in to their crappy treatment by saying "well I guess it's all in the name of security". Nice one...thanks loser. Why don't you just let the CIA and FBI tap your phone too and read your mail. C'mon, it's all in the name of security after all. Better yet, why not just let the Government tell you what to do, when to do it, how to live, what to eat, where to live, etc......hey They are just watching out for you.....you know in the name of security and all that.

I will say this: Orwell was right.

Ciao for Now (although Big Brother might delete this post since it's encouraging free thinking.)

Stupid RedNeck Tricks

Last weekend a tragic event happened that could have been avoided by the use of a little thing I like to call "Common Sense". There's this small Town near Memphis called Selmer (I know, a small Town in Tennessee and something bad happened because of stupidity.....this is such a rare occurance) that for the past 18 years has had a Hot Rod/Custom Car parade as a fundraiser for some organization or another. Usually the cars drive slowly through the streets (like you'd expect from a parade......cars driving at 15 mph or so) and like every other parade in every city in America people crowd the sidewalks and watch. This year some RedNecked Moron decided that having a nitro powered Funny Car light up his tires and race at full speed down the street was a "good idea". The driver should have used his head and thought about just how dumb that was. As it happens, the driver lost control of the car and it plowed into the crowd killing 6 people. Idiots!!!! The powers that be that run the Town have been quoted as saying "we've never had anything like this happen in 18 years..." then they admit this is the first time they decided to do this. Their "apology" is to keep repeating that they've never had this problem before. I think "We are idiots and we are terribly sorry about the deaths of those 6 people" is probably what they should be saying. Then to top it all off the news today tells us that the driver has a history of DUI. Lovely!!!! I'd call it Darwin in action, but the wrong people got removed from the Gene Pool.

Updates

Last night I installed the shed light. It was actually quite easy to do and I didn't have to drill a hole to feed the cord through. We have to vents on either end of the shed and I just fed it through the vent slot. It gives off decent enough light, not enought to work by, but enough to go in the damn shed and find what you are needing at light without tripping over crap by flashlight. We need three more fence panels, one-two more posts, and all the lumber for the deck and we are ready to go. Just have to get my Father-in-Law to bring his trailer down so we can haul the stuff home from Lowes. They will deliver it, but it's 65 bucks. I'll buy Doyle lunch as payment. We've rented some interesting movies, and have only watched one so far. Smoking Aces.....a great mob/action movie with an interesting twist and some bizarre characters. Reminds me of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Great cast as well. We've also rented Children of Men and Pan's Labryinth. Haven't watched them yet, but looking forward to tonight.

The Kids Are All right

I will upload the picture later of our two "other" children getting along just peachy now. As some of you may know, we have a 1 year old female, black, bob-tail cat named Panther. As you may also know, we were adopted by an approximately 2 year old, white and orange spotted, fuzzy male cat whom Olivia named Pumpkin. We found out that Pumpkin may have previously lived in our house and that the former owners just left him and moved out. We have several bird feeders in our yard because it's nice to be outside and listen to nature basically.....instead of the hum of a freeway and if you've never seen a Cardinal in person; wow! One gorgeous bird. We even have a Woodpecker that comes around. Well as cats are want to do, Pumpkin likes to hunt birds. Loves to hunt birds, a lot. He plays with them, doesn't really kill and eat them. Our bird feeders have become a Kitty Buffet if you will. We had been planning on bringing Pumpkin in the house, but weren't sure how Miss Thang would react (Panther can be a grumpy cat at times). The last straw was the other day when Olivia and I were in the house and we heard this God awful screaming sound.....we ran outside to see Pumpkin with a Mockingbird in his maw and it squirming. Olivia ran to the bird's rescue. It lived and Pumpkin was denied a toy. So much for that Animal Planet documentary I was going to film called "He Who Stalks the Yard!!". Miss Panther was sitting on her little play gym when we decided to let Mr.. Pumpkin in. He wandered into the house and Panther leapt off of the gym to sprint across the house to see this new "intruder". Now mind you, for the past several months Pumpkin has been hanging around outside the house. Sleeping on the back porch, etc. Panther is used to seeing him outside. The two of them stood nose to nose, sniffing each other. He took a swat at her, she swatted back and grabbed him and rolled him over. That was it. They backed off from each other, and were kind of leery but were generally okay with each other's presence in the house. Now they constantly play and engage in the running of the 1rst Annual Feline 500 whose course goes from our bedroom to the living room, dining room and through the kitchen. Little 2-5 pound animals make a lot of noise running across the floor. They also like to use the long crinkle tunnel we bought Panther as part of the track. There is the sound of muted paws on carpet running (kind of a dull thump thump thump) and then the sound of aluminum foil being crinkled as they shoot through the tunnel. It scares the crap out of you when you aren't expecting it. Little shits. On Saturday night we had the "bed controversy". Panther may be Olivia's cat, but she loves Cathy. Oh my God does she love Cathy. She absolutely insists on Cathy picking her up, and putting her over her shoulder like a small child. Panther will then rub her head in Cathy's hair. She's such a big baby. Whenever she gets a chance to sleep wherever (Liv likes to take her to her room with her) she will climb up in our bed and go under the covers and cuddle against Cath's legs. Well Saturday night Pumpkin decided he liked the big bed and hopped up there to sleep. Oh Panther was annoyed. She kept running in, jumping on top of our headboard and glaring down at Pumpkin. They ended up working it out. He can share the bed apparently as long as he doesn't cuddle up with Panther's Human. He doesn't care as he usually sleeps at the foot of the bed centrally located away from our feet. It helps that we have a King Size bed. Two humans and two cats, one small and one medium sized. The picture I will be uploading shows the two of them sleeping on the rug by the back door right next to each other. Heck on Sunday morning they ate with their bowls a few inches apart. Cats, gotta love 'em.

Ciao for now.

Fun weekend

Wow!!! As freaking hot as it was this past weekend, I had a blast! The regular June Airsoft game was Saturday, and only 50 folks showed up. This was nice. I like small games like this because the field becomes more open and you can work on your sneaking, etc while you play. Also all of the whiners and cheaters and bitchers didn't show up. There were zero complaints and I never once heard "call your hits". My buddy Justin's advice worked. He said to drink Gatorade the night before then again in the morning as well as drinking lots of water. It worked as I wasn't dehydrated all day. I went through an 8 pack of Gatorade but wasn't dehydrated. Nice. Sunday Cat and I went fishing at Percy Priest Lake. Nothing was biting because it was just damn hot, but we enjoyed just sitting on the little fishing dock nestled in the trees staring out at the lake taking in the sights. We were being stalked by two turtles in the water. You'd see this little black spot (the head) sticking up and moving along, then it would duck under the water. One of the turtles was fascinated by Cathy's day-glo orange bobber. It kept swimming around it no matter where she cast it out to and no matter where it drifted to. It was quite amusing. We called it quits at 11:30 and went shopping a Lowes and Home Depot. We've decided that "the fence project" would take way too long and be way too much hassle, and moving that fence six inches is what has been holding up our pond digging and deck building, etc. So we decided to leave it as is, put the one panel back up, get two more and be done with it. We bought the basic stuff for the pond yesterday. Liner, UV Filter (pretty damn sweet actually.....it constantly bathes the water coming through it in UV rays which help to kill the bacteria.......this is after the water passes through two filters and bio balls......), pump for the pond so we can pass the water through the UV filter and back into the pond as a waterfall, and a small self-contained pump/fountain. We plan to get a difuser to attach to the fountain pump so we can run a line to a spitting frog or something like that. The reason you put a spitting statue and/or fountain is so you can keep the water moving without having to run the big main pump/waterfall all day long. Saves you energy. Now we just need to keep digging the hole and it will be time to lay out the liner and all that. Whew!!! Fun fun fun. We also got a solar powered shed light. It's a 30 dollar solution to the lack of lighting in our shed. There is no electrical run to it so we had to take an extension cord, horsehoe nail it to a beam in the carport and then when we need light in there we run the cord to the outlet by the back porch and then plug into one of the two work lights we have (you know the ultra bright halogen ones.....) and we have light. It's a pain. This light uses LED's and has an on/off switch (so it's not on all the time). You mount the light, the mount the panel and run the cord to the light. Simple. We will see how much light it puts out.

The Discourser has moved

He's renamed his blog address because he has purchased his own domain The Discourser.com. Check the links for The Discoursers new home.

An Angry Mob!!!

Are those pitchforks and torches I see!!! So apparently the "higher ups" decided awhile ago that we needed a new timecard system for our Company. Let me give you a bit of background....remember the last Corporate Culture entry I blogged about (go look it up if you want, I'll wait)? As some of you may know I work for a Company called Amec. It is an Engineering firm like BKF was, but that's where the similarities end. With Engineering or Architecture or Law firms the "product" is professional people's "time". In other words, if a client hires us, it's because they want us to "engineer" something. For example, I bill the Geotechnical Department. They use their time determining the structural integrity of something, or how best to go about stopping a slow leak in a big dam that if left unchecked could possibly flood Nashville. The guys and gals run computer sims, do site visits, etc. The educated opinion and facts at the end of it all are the "product" we sell. So to accurately account for the time spent, we use a bill rate table that is driven by a persons "class code" (or professional title, ie Field Tech level 8). Sometimes we have clients who don't like our rates, but are huge clients and so sometimes one has to propose lower rates to get the business. Simple capitalism basically. If you and I are selling the same exact widget, I will make more sales and therefore my profit if I sell my widget lower than yours. Well apparently the powers on high thought they knew how things run in the company. (don't they always....I think they do crap like this to justify their existence and thereby their large salaries....but I digress). Did they ask us why the different codes? No. They know why....uh huh....sure you do. They were tired of people overwriting their codes (I'm still not sure why....they always give some ambigious answer...gee that never happens in a big corporation) so they picked new timekeeping software that doesn't use those codes. Great!!! Now we have to scramble to find another way to do billing. IDIOTS!!!! Let's just piss off our multi-million dollar clients and make ourselves look like fools. My Project Managers and Unit Managers are out for blood. I've told them they are preaching to the choir. Even my boss, Ms. Company Line herself, thinks this new system is shit. It gets implemented on June 25 th. Watch this space for many rants to come.

Ciao for now.

Giant Robots!!!

Transformers: More than meets the eye.
Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Check out this pic. Yep in a few weeks the Transformers movie is coming out. The effects look great. It's also a Michael Bay movie (he of the massive explosions and awesome car chases) so it should be great.

Speaking of Speed Racer

Look at that man!!! It's the Mach Freaking 5 baby!!!! This had to be one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid. Now they are making a live action movie.....John Goodman is playing Pops Racer....it's going to be good. If they took the effort to make the Mach 5 look as good as that, then it should be good.

Ani-Monday

Anime, for those that don't know is an adult form of animation from Japan that derives it's storylines from adult themed comic books called Manga.  Most are action packed and are about soldiers or samurai and such.  Some are like teen or young adult romance novels.  Others have supernatural themes.  The most common Anime that most people know about but never realized it was Anime is Speed Racer.  Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion (yes I'm old enough to have watched that as a kid) are also examples of Anime.  The late night adult version of Cartoon Network called Adult Swim has been showing Anime for years now.  Some of it really good, and others just plain weird (but Anime is like that.).  Last night on Sci Fi channel they premiered their new weekly Anime show called Ani-Monday.  They ran the first US showing of Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society.  This is the latest installment in the Stand Alone Concept storyline based on Masumune Shirow's Anime movie Ghost in the Shell.  I've seen both movies, the second was very slow and a bit boring, and both Stand Alone Concept tv series and have been wanting to see this one ever since I found out it existed.  It was great.  The story of Ghost in the Shell is, at it's core, a philosophical look at the computerization of mankind.  Just read my blog entries about Cell phones and such.  Masumune was right.  The first movie was about a counter terrorist organization in the Japanese Government called Section 9.  It takes place in year 2030.  During that period of time, mankind has become cyberized.  Everyone has had their brains updated with cyber implants: computer parts that help our brains learn faster and help us surf the net via a cable connected to our brains (the plug in is on the back of the neck).  Cyber crime is rampant and it is the most heinous of crimes to hack someone's brain and take them over....this is referred to as Ghost Hacking (the Ghost representing the Soul which in Masumune's definition is that which makes us uniquely us).  The team members of Section 9 are all full conversion cyborgs (meaning they have "prosthetic bodies" with human brains).  A cyborg is basically a robot with a human brain.  The robot bodies look human, feel human but are comprised of a metal skeleton and no organs.  The only thing human about them is the brain and spinal column transplanted into the cyborg chassis.  The brain is also contained in a computerized metal casing (to protect it of course).  Masumune's philosophical question is (and this is echoed in the thoughts of one of the main characters, The Major) does the soul or Ghost of the person get transferred from the original meat body to the prosthetic one?  If it does, what changes does it go through or does it even survive the process?  One can look at it in this fashion; the more tech reliant we become, the less human we become.  Think about it.  Teens with cellphones.  They spend countless hours texting each other when the device they are texting on can be used to make a phone call so you can talk to that person.  Typing an impersonal electronic message has replaced face to face conversation.  Sounds less human to me.  In the movie the protagonist is called the "Puppet Master" because he is Ghost Hacking people.  At the end of the movie he hacks into a cybernetic Tank and goes on a rampage.  The Major, Matoko Kusanagi, a cyborg from Section 9 hacks into the tank to stop it and ends up merging her consciousness with that of the Puppet Master and now roams the net as a disembodied Ghost (or soul).  Very deep and action packed.  Fans of the original movie asked permission of Masumune if they could work on a project that explores the characters of Section 9 before the events taking place in the movie.  He read the proposed storyline and agreed, very happy with what he read.  Thus was born Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the follow ups Stand Alone Complex: Second Gig and Solid State Society.  The characters are great in the show.  Aramaki is the head of Section 9 referred to as "Chief" or "The Old Man" at various times.  The teams leader is Matoko Kusanagi also known as The Major (although we are never sure if this is her rank or just a nickname.  I think it's her rank because she is often addressed as Major by Aramaki).  She is the character that ultimately ends up a disembodied Ghost roaming the net at the end of the first movie.  She is also the character that Masumune uses to voice his philosophy of the computerization of mankind.  Next up is Batou an American and former Army Ranger who no longer lives in what is called the American Empire....he is cyberized to the point that his eyes look like two camera lenses and not human eyes.  Side note: in the year 2030, the US is no longer the Economic power of the world after having bankrupted itself with it's expansionist ways.  Whoa.....pretty damn close to our present way of thinking.  Wonder if Masumune and Orwell have ever met????  Boma is a big burly cyborg who is a demo expert.  Pazu looks very human with a slim build.  He is the "Face Man" of the team.  Saito is the sniper, and he's bad ass.  He has a cyber eye that he covers with a patch because when he uses it he can link with a global satellite and use that in place of the scope on his sniper rifle.  Google Street View comes to mind.  Ishikawa is human looking too and he's the computer expert.  A Wizard class Hacker is the term used in the show.  Togusa is the most human of all.  The others come from military and intel backgrounds, Togusa is just a regular cop.  He's also still in his original body with the standard cyberbrain enhancements the only cyber he has.  Side note: Togusa is always being teased by Batou about not getting a prosthetic body and in the latest installment not only is he in charge of Section 9 in the Major's place (she retired) he also has been cyberized.  It affects him as everyone sees.  His tireless cyborg body makes it so he's becoming a workaholic and easily emotionally detached.  Another example of Masumune's theory on the dehumanization of mankind by tech.  Good stuff, and very deep.

 

Can't wait to see what they show next Monday night.

Catch Up

No silly people not Ketchup...... Anyway....Weekend Update time.....
Saturday was fun at A Cowboy Town. Liv had a blast going on a two hour trail ride (the child loves horses...then again what little girl doesn't???) and Cat and I got to canoe and fish.....it was too hot and the fish weren't biting. The food was great and the gunfight was way cool (they basically took it from the movie Tombstone.....). All in all a great place to hang out and have fun. We plan to go back. Sunday was the Airsoft Baby Shower...that's what I like to call it....yes a bunch of grown Men who play "Army" threw a Baby Shower for our buddy Justin and his Wife Dawn who are expecting their second child. None of the traditional games were played...Thank you Tina!!!.....but a good time was had by all. It was a great chance to visit with friends and spend a nice Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Bill and his Folks for the venue and Tina Braddock for throwing it all together. The Sopranos also wrapped up on Sunday night as well. Now I haven't seen it as I do not have HBO, but alot of people were disappointed. It just ended with a "you will never know what happens" kind of air.....anti-climatic....and from what I've read about David Chase, exactly what you should have expected from him. He apparently doesn't like to make typical TV. I will miss my Favorite Dagos....someone needs to do a show about an Italian Family that runs a restaurant....maybe do a Sopranos spinoff with Artie Bucco and his New Vesuvio Restaurant. That would be pretty good. You know, Italians and food and all....

Leave the gun, but take the cannoli...

Ciao for now.

The World is a Sad Place

So Porus Whoreton has been sent home on "Mansion Arrest", probably got Gucci to design her electronic monitoring device, after 3 "full" days of jail time for some undisclosed medical condition.  On another note, the troop surge that was supposed to bring victory to the war on terror has done what I predicted it would do: provide the insurgents with more targets to kill.  3,500 troops have died occupying the Country of Iraq.  That's 3,500 too many I say.  The war has been over for awhile now, yet we are still there, our troops relegated to traffic cops and getting blown up at checkpoints.  So which story was the buzz of every cable news channel last night?  You got it....Porus Whoreton and how disgusted everyone is with her getting preferential treatment because of who she is.  You want these useless wastes of oxygen to stop being news?  Then stop buying tabloids folks.  Let's put People, Us, Variety, The Enquirer all out of business.  Let's make sure that shows like Access, and the E Entertainment Network shrivel up and die.  Guess what?  If we did this, if a picture or glimpse of these idiots wasn't news, they get treated like the rest of us.  There's nothing wrong with being famous for doing great work.  Al Pacino is an awesome actor (hey Godfather was on TV last night.....) and was just given a Lifetime Achievement Award from some Actors organization.  Do you see constant pictures of Al on the news?  On the cover of magazines?  No.  If you do, it's because he attended some award show and they got his picture.  Hell even Jack Nicholson a man known for his wild ways, doesn't make the cover of magazines for that.  There is a way to behave as a celebrity and then there is Porus Whoreton, Alchy Lohan and other wastes of oxygen and time.  Our troops are dying for no reason in a far away land, our Government is bowing to the pressure of non-citizens to make them Citizens (fine, but the better pay some back taxes and all be taken off of Welfare and have their Government sponsored health care taken away.  Hell I've lived here all my life and I can't get it, so why should they.), the Oil Companies have bent us over and our raping away and no one is doing anything to stop them, the Office of Homeland Gestapos has been slowly stripping away our Civil Liberties since 2001 and we've been letting them, our "Leadership" for the last almost 8 years has been a joke, the gap between Church and State has slowly been narrowing to the point where it's hard to tell the difference.......all this crap is going on in our Country and in the World and instead of the cable news channels reporting on all of this, or doing some investigative journalism to find out why, what do we do?  I'm almost ashamed to say it, but we ignore all of the important crap that actually means something to our future to focus every single minute of a news persons time to the discussion of a underweight, ugly, horse faced whore with loads of cash.  Wow....what a great day to be an American.

 

Ciao for now.

Busy weekend coming up.

We are going to my Company Picnic Saturday being held at a place called A Cowboy Town. This guy (a caterer and horse lover) bought 110 acres with a private lake and built a lodge and a replica Western Town on it. They even perform gunfights during the day. Pretty cool, reminds me of an old amusement park in the Bay Area called Frontier Village (it was demolished a few decades ago and is now condos or something). They have horse riding, fishing (you don't need a license because it's private property....nice), camping, canoeing, etc. It should be fun and it's only 10 miles north of Nashville. Sunday we have a Baby Shower for one of my Airsoft Teammate's Wife who is expecting a boy on my birthday.....how cool is that. Bill and Braddock didn't want to be the only guys there (Justin doesn't have a choice, it's his baby...) so they've invited all the guys to come as well. Should be interesting.

Charitable Organizations

Today at work we are having a Red Cross blood drive. I have never, nor will I ever, give blood in a blood drive. Selfish of me huh? It's like I am not an organ donor either. I think if I was I'd leave my eyes.....since I'm nearsighted that would be a final joke on the world I think. There are several reasons I don't. Number one is that organizations like the Red Cross are supposed to be Non-Profit organizations. You would assume that the majority of the money donated to a Charity goes towards the charities functions.....not for salaries. Yes, charities exist to benefit those who are without, but that good will doesn't pay the rent so those that work for the charity do need to get paid. Guess what? The Red Cross only uses 30% of what you donate for the charitable things the Red Cross does. Now mind you, millions of people donate to the Red Cross every year. Corporations, etc donate huge sums of cash. 70% of that goes to pay salaries, etc. That's some highly paid "volunteers" if you ask me. The blood you donate goes into a Citywide blood bank. The blood gets distributed to the following: Car accident victims, gun shot victims, stabbing victims, vain old biddies who come in for face lifts and tummy tucks and don't donate their own blood. So let's look at why the blood supply is so low.

Car Accident Victims: In Tennessee, like it was back home in California, Semis cause most of the accidents you see on the road. It's a well known fact, listen to any daily traffic report in Tennessee and in California....odds are 9 times out of 10 there is a Semi involved. If you've driven with them out here, you can see why. They drive like assholes; tailgating each other, passenger cars, etc. Cutting you off, speeding up and cutting each other off; it's no wonder they cause so many wrecks. Drunk driving is also the cause of a lot of accidents out here. Apparently it isn't as expensive to get a DUI in Tennessee as it is in California. Jerk off, rednecks in Pick Ups are also the cause of a lot of accidents out here as well. So let's look at the list: Asshole Truck Drivers, Drunken Morons and Rednecks.....yeah, those people are sooooo deserving of my blood. Let 'em bleed out I say and give the blood to the poor schmucks they've run into or off of the road.

Gun Shot and Stabbing Victims: Let's put the word victim in quotes shall we. In parts of Nashville there are a crap load of gang activity. There's always a shooting here or there or a stabbing somewhere. Let's look at this list: Useless punk criminals who shoot and stab each other "just because"......yeah, those people are sooooo deserving of my blood.

Cosmetic Surgery: Do I need to say more? Some rich old prune thinks she needs to look like she was 25 again so she undergoes "elective surgery" to have shit lifted, pulled, tucked etc...... Do they go in ahead of time and donate their own blood? Usually not. Yeah really deserving of my blood.

Same with my organs. One of these idiots would probably get my donated body parts.....hey it's my body....if I don't think these schmucks are worthy then they don't get crap. Period. They can have my eyes.....better yet, give my eyes to the vain old biddy. She will have to get glasses to go with her new pulled and tucked face. Hee hee......

The only charity that gets anything from me is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I've seen how their research makes a difference first hand. The Discourser's son has diabetes and I've seen The Boy's insulin pump go from a huge device to something the size of a small cell phone (think a flip phone). He's supposed to be getting a new one that will test his blood as well...no more sticking his finger and drawing blood. Nice. By the way, the JDRF puts 90+% of your donation to research!! When I was asking for donations for a walk I was doing for the organization, one of the people I was asking did research on the Charity. He was so impressed with the fact I've just stated that he gave me a 100 check!!! See that's what a charity should do. Not advertise, and sponsor sporting events, etc......people that work for a charity should not get rich from working there. Period.

A Quick One

I've noticed this a long time ago, but felt the need to comment on it today for some reason.  We as a Country are dumb.  Or at least that's what the manufacturers of products and services seem to think.  I have several travel mugs for coffee.  On each of them, somewhere, are the words "Caution-Contents may be hot".  No shit???  Really????  Wow I'm glad they decided to point that out to me because I never would have figured that out for myself.  Let's get real people.....do we need it spelled out to us that the container we are putting hot, steaming coffee in may contain "contents that are hot".  We have this cool little coffee maker at work now.  It makes one cup at a time using these little packets and it's a great little item.  When it is done making your cup of coffee, the screen says the following (yes it has a LCD screen on it....): Enjoy your drink!!  Caution-your drink may be hot!!!  Okay, we were doing good with the first sentence.  Enjoy your drink.  Why thank you coffee machine, I will surely try and enjoy my cup of hot, steaming coffee.  Caution-your drink may be hot.....wow you have now shown your stupidity machine.  Let's see, the mug is warm to the touch, there is steam vapors rising out of the liquid inside of it.....yep, it's hot allright!!!  Why do the people that make this stuff feel that we need the obvious stated to us????  On the side of a jar of Planters Peanuts, I shit you not, is the words "This product was manufactured on equipment that processes nuts.  May contain nuts".  I sure hope the Hell it was and does!!!!  Planters PEANUTS.....should have PEANUTS in it......shouldn't it????  Have there been occurrences of people highly allergic to nuts buying a jar of plainly labeled "peanuts" and then suing because....wait for it.....the jar of peanuts contains peanuts?!?!?!?!?  I blame the idiot judges.  Apparently because of some now long dead old woman burning herself with a cup of McDonalds coffee and being rewarded 2 million in damages, companies now have to state the obvious.  Do you remember this?  A lady goes through the drive in at McD's and gets a cup of coffee.  Now mind you, if you've ever had a cup of coffee from McD's, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, etc you know that the minute you grab that cup it's damn hot!!!  That's why Starbucks has those little recycled paper slips you put on your cup so you don't burn your hands.  So let's picture this if we will, shall we?  You are handed an extremely hot cup of coffee....your nerve endings in your hand tell you, no scream out to you "HOT!".  You are wearing a skirt and hose.  You voluntarily.....remember now this was a conscious act on her part, she made the decision to do this.....take said cup of hot steaming coffee and put it between your legs!!!!  Yep....the cup that is burning your hands you voluntarily place betwixt your thighs so it burns the insides of them.  Oh, and you hit a bump causing it to spill everywhere causing severe burns.  According to the judge who tried this lawsuit, this was McDonald's fault.  Huh?????  Did the kid at the window spill it on her?  No.  Did the McDonalds employee place the cup of coffee between her legs?  No, because if he did that would have been a lawsuit of a different kind I'm sure.   Let's restate:  McDonalds did nothing but fill her order and deliver the promised goods.  Somehow though someone's stupidity was rewarded and prompt service was not.  So now, everything obvious is spelt out for us because there may be some idiot judge who will award someone multiple millions of dollars for their own stupidity.  Thank God there aren't that many of those anymore.  The judge I applaud is the one that threw out the lawsuit filed by the hugely fat dude who was suing McDonalds because it was their fault he was fat.  Really???  Nice try pal.  Yeah all those McDonalds employees are holding guns to people's heads making them ingest Big Macs.  Don't think so.  Also, why do some things that need instructions do not have them why others that are obvious as to what they are used for do.   Take toilet paper for instance.  Why is there no instructions on how to use it?  Tampons have instructions, condoms have instructions but TP doesn't.   Sunflower seeds do though.  Why?  Peanuts in the shell don't have instructions, you just know that you are to crack them open and eat the nut inside.  So why do sunflower seeds say "Crack open shell, remove nut, put in your mouth and enjoy".  No kidding......I thought you were supposed to stick the sunflower seed up your nose!!!! 

The Best Movie of all Time

Star Wars, the original.  Just turned 30 this year.  I remember reading the book first then the comic and waiting in anticipation for the bloody movie to come out.  I was 12 and the year was 1977.  I had all the different T-Shirts, an LED watch (remember those....they were blank until you pushed a button then you got a glaring red digital readout...oooooooo very late 70's High Tech) and all the action figures.  I even had the soundtrack album and the Story of Star Wars album (the audio from the movie).  Yes I was a big Star Wars Fanboy.  I remember when the movie first came out, it didn't have a number on it.  It wasn't Episode IV: A New Hope.....nope it was just called Star Wars.  Having watched the original a bazillion times, I refuse to believe that Darth Vader was ever supposed to be Luke's Father.  Sorry, the BS explanation that Lucas came up with when Obi-Wan says "when Anakin turned to the dark side the man I knew truly died..."  Uh yeah George...suuuuurrrreeee......I believe it.... Empire Strikes Back is, of course, the best of the trilogy....but wait, you want to tell me "Dear Ranter....there are actually 6 movies...".  NO.  There isn't.  Just like there is no Highlander II, there are no such thing as Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars.  Nope.  Didn't happen.  This is what has pissed me off over the years with these movies; George Lucas has lost the concept of who the movies are for.  Remember back in the day when George was a "filmmaker"?  When George wanted to make a better movie than what was out there?  He did in the original Star Wars.  Then something happened; he ad libbed the rest of the story.  He had to.  Let's take the aforementioned episodes 1-3 that never happened for instance.  In the original movie series, Darth Vader meets Threepio several times, but yet doesn't recognize him as the Droid he built as a 9 year old boy on the Desert Planet Tatooine.  Yeah....bad story telling.  Also in the original, Vader's troops are orbiting Tatooine.....his birth planet, but yet he doesn't seem to remember it??????  C'mon.....  Then Lucas takes the best explanation of the Force (it's an energy field that surrounds us and binds us) and tries to give it a specific explanation (it's little microbial bacteria called Midachlorians.....WTF???????).  Stop it George....stop it now.  In the first movie, Han Solo (everyone's favorite character) is a pirate and a smuggler.  The definition of Rogue.  He blasts an alien named Greedo from under the table who is threatening to kill him.  Lucas didn't want Solo to be a cold blooded killer (uh.....that reaction to a situation is called survival.  Better them than you basically) so he changes the scene in the original movie to show the alien shooting first.  Why??????  This has always pissed me off.  The changing of an original work.  It's like that stupid colorizing of black and white movies.  Why????  Did that make it better?  No it made it look like my 3 year old Grandson was finger painting on your TV screen.  I don't mind "Director's Cuts".  I think that sometimes it really adds to the movie....and it's not really changing the movie per se, those scenes were part of it originally but were cut for certain reasons.  Go and rent the directors cuts of the Lord of the Rings movies, especially The Return of the King.  Wow!!!!  The cut scenes are freaking awesome, but make the movie over 4 hours long!!!  Going back and changing scenes because they weren't the way you wanted them to begin with is like Michelangelo rising from the dead and fixing the Mona Lisa's smile....... Spielberg is just as guilty with removing all the FBI Agent's guns in ET and replacing them with radios.  HUH?????  Oh yeah, Law Enforcement NEVER carries guns.  C'mon......the guns made the situation more tense.  It demonized the FBI Agents and accentuated ET's predicament.  You felt his terror and you felt the danger.  A bunch of Suits with radios is no threat to anyone.  Stupid move Steven......very stupid.......

The Sopranos Wrapping Up!!!

Wow!! I haven't had HBO since Season 5, but I've been keeping up with my favorite Drama about Tony Soprano and crew. Holy Crap!!! They are ending the series this Sunday, and boy are they ending it!! Most of the original crew is dead. Christopher, Sil and Bobby...all offed. That leaves Tony and Paulie Walnuts. I'm definitely renting this last season when it comes out.

Rant Coming

Isn't our world sad when an ultra skinny, horse-faced, blonde bimbo who's last name is synonymous with the "best" in Hotels is famous for performing Oral Sex in a cheesy video tape. Oh yeah and partying. Yep that's it. Paris Hilton is "famous" because of her last name and who she hangs out partying with and who she has sex with. Nice. Wow are we a sorry Country folks. So little Ms. Skank thinks because of who she is she can get away with anything. As she is now about to find out, enough is freaking enough. She is now going to jail for driving on a suspended license after getting a DUI. Yep.....Driving Under the Influence. A condition that if you get busted for in California runs you about $10,000 in fines, etc when you are all done. Nothing for Porus Whoreton of course...she probably had that in her wallet. Now Bimbo the clown is going to jail....and I couldn't be happier. Is it wrong to wish that someone shanks her while she's there???? As far as I'm concerned she's a waste of good oxygen.

Ciao for now.

Cha-cha-Changes

New blog look. I like this template, it looks like old parchment. It's a bit easier on the eyes to read as well. The top pic of the Palace of Fine Arts goes well with it too. Note: Pic of the Week has been moved to the bottom.

That is all.

Language

So for the last couple of days while driving around I've been listening to the Audio Book by George Carlin called "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?".  Yes the fact it was a book by George Carlin (one of my favorite comedians) coupled with the title made it so I had to buy it.  I've listened to it once through before and it's damn funny.  He has several sections on euphemisms.  Basically he rants on about PC language and how we as a people are constantly trying to upgrade ourselves by changing our language.  One of his examples is a Store Clerk.  You know, what my Wife does for a living right now.  She works at Ross.  She is not called a Clerk, she is called a Sales Associate.  I loathe our PC-ness in this Country.  It's gotten out of hand.  Folks are no longer Handicap but Differently Abled.  WTF???  So I guess those aren't handicap spaces but Differently Abled spaces????  Black became African-American, Mexican became Latino.....it used to be Hispanic a much more generic term for people from Spanish Speaking Countries.  Oriental (which was always stupid and didn't make sense) became Asian.  Much better (see some of these changes are really corrections...that's good) as Asians come from Asia....not the Orient...there is no Orient it's an Ancient term for the continental area known as Asia.  Garbage companies are now "Waste Management" companies.   It's the same thing.  Why the correction?  The guy that pumped your gas (which doesn't happen anymore, but trust me it used to) went from Service Station Attendant to Petroleum Transfer Engineer.  Really???  Engineer implies that you have a degree in Engineering......I don't think that one with a degree in Engineering would be working at a gas station???? Instead of laying people off, companies now Downsize....of course that is too negative so it's now Rightsize.  It's amazing to me how we create words.  No other language does this.  Sure there is slang in other languages, but I don't think they create new words in say Spanish to make things more palatable to folks.  Put it this way:  If you screw up at work repeatedly and are more trouble than you are worth, they fire you.  Simple.  Of course it's referred to as "Being let go" or "Terminated" (I like that one....there's a list of people I'd like Terminated...but I digress).  Why do we do this?  Can't we just call things what they are?  When you dial Zero on your phone, you get an Operator.  Of course it's known as Directory Assistance now (but wait how can that be...I dialed 0 not 411????)  Honestly folks, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck...guess what it's a Freaking Duck!!!!!  Not a Water Fowl.

 

 

Movie Reviews and TV Review

First post of June...woo hoo.....anyway the movie review. Cath and I watched "The Good Shepard" the other night. We both are of the same opinion about Matt Damon; he's good in everything we've seen him in. He's a far superior actor to his pal Ben Afleck. The Good Shepard was about the creation of the CIA. The CIA has it's roots with American's trained by the British OSS (the precursor to their MI-6). The movie basically said that the CIA was started by elitist, white Males who were Ivy Leaguers and members of the ultra-secret organization Skull and Bones. Great!!! No wonder Kennedy wanted to disband the CIA. It was an interesting movie, a bit slow paced, but not boring. Now for the TV reviews. Yes we watched "Pirate Master" last night. Hey I played a Pirate for 12 years you think I'm not going to at least give it a watch??? It was okay, but if the same format is kept each week it will get boring fast. We shall see.